Working at Durham University
As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career while enjoying a high-quality work/life balance. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.
Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.
A competitive salary is only one part of the many fantastic benefits you will receive if you join the University: you will also receive access to the following Total Rewards – Grade 8.
The Department
The Department is one of the UK’s leading Computer Science departments, with an outstanding reputation in research, teaching, and student employability. Our internationally recognised research covers Algorithms and Complexity, Artificial Intelligence and Human Systems, Networks, Scientific Computing and Vision, Imaging and Visualisation. There is a lively research culture with many visitors and events, and active and rewarding collaborations with other departments in Durham and with other scientists in the UK and internationally. In the recent assessment exercise REF2021 we improved by six places in the ranking. We aim to provide an encouraging and friendly environment with a strong sense of community. The Department has recently grown rapidly, and now has more than 50 permanent members of academic staff. In 2021, we moved to a newly constructed building, which we share with Mathematics.
The Department has a proud tradition of delivering excellence in its undergraduate programmes through research-led teaching. Attracting some of the best students in the UK, the Department is ranked 6th in both the Complete University Guide 2023 and the Guardian University Guide 2023 and nationally we are ranked joint 1st for student employability. As part of the expansion of the Department, new MSc programmes in Business Analytics, Scientific Computing and Data Analysis, and in Data Science launched within the past four years.
The Department holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award. Athena SWAN is a national initiative that recognises the advancement of gender equality, representation, progression and success for all in academia.
The Department of Computer Science at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor. We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of Scientific Computing. We are particularly eager to hear from applicants who make a methodological contribution to High-Performance Computing (HPC) for numerical simulations or establish further links to application domains relying on HPC.
As part of its investments in Scientific Computing, the department has intensified its collaboration with Durham’s Advanced Research Computing directorate and Durham’s three national and regional supercomputing installations (Bede, Cosma and Hamilton). The department has started to install its own set of experimental hardware, and it has established industry collaborations with leading vendors in the field.
This post offers an exciting opportunity to build upon this ecosystem to facilitate your personal research. Possible areas of interest for such research include performance engineering, research software engineering challenges, algorithms that fit to novel supercomputing architectures, tools facilitating better numerical (PDE) solvers, or new programming models. We particularly welcome candidates who can complement research by current members of staff, work together with our current team of researchers and help us to establish new and tighter links to other departments in Durham which rely on HPC.
This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/computer-science/
Assistant Professors at Durham
Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but also to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and wider discipline, and contribute to the wider student experience.
Academic colleagues are supported to publish high-quality research in their area of interest with a focus on quality in high-impact outputs including monographs, essays in edited volumes, and book chapters, rather than quantity. We will fully support your research needs including practical help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activities, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor.
Durham University is also committed to ensuring excellent teaching quality, stimulating learning environments, and innovative curricula for all of our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and to develop innovative teaching.
We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best international talent to Durham. We, therefore, offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, your position will be confirmed as permanent
Assistant Professor in Scientific Computing and High-Performance Computing
Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of Scientific Computing, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University. The University aims to provides a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process.
Key responsibilities:
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To pursue research that is high quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
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To develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement;
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To play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision, and contribute to ongoing curriculum development;
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Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity;
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Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department;
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To deliver lectures, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment;
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To fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department;
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To contribute to attracting and supervising research students, and to enhance the Department’s commitment to its vibrant and inclusive postgraduate culture.
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Carry out such other duties as specified by the Head of Department.
Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion
Our collective aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and we believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work.
As a University equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key part of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do. We also live by our values and our Staff Code of Conduct. At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all of our colleagues are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.
We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including disabled people, women, and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
We are committed to equality: if for any reason you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of research outputs, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. We also understand that the Covid-19 pandemic will have had differential impacts on different people and welcome information on this if you wish to share it. The selection committee will recognise that this may have reduced the quantity of your research accordingly
The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.